Here's a cut of tape of Ciattarelli talking about it.

But he needed to explain why, for instance, it's the right thing to do, say, to include gay and lesbian identity in the school curriculum. Murphy would say Ciattarelli was being divisive. He needed to tell them more clearly what he had done on taxes or how he improved school funding, and he didn't explain some of the culture-war issues that Ciattarelli raised. And that was done at the cost of not talking about what he was doing for moderate, middle-class suburbanites.

He tried over and over again, like we saw in the race in Virginia, to paint Jack Ciattarelli as a Trump extremist. SOLOMON: I don't think Murphy had the right message for the moment. What happened that made this race so tight? Much of the congressional delegation is also Democratic. Both houses of the state Legislature are controlled by Democrats.

The Ciattarelli campaign is angry about the calling of the race and doesn't appear ready to concede, however.ĬORNISH: New Jersey has always thought to have been a blue state. So the expectation is Murphy's lead will grow over the next few days. There are still an unknown number of mail-in ballots, but those tend to break for Democrats. All the counties that lean Republican are 100% in, and the counties that still have ballots to count are heavily Democratic. But there doesn't appear to be any path to victory for Ciattarelli. That's a tiny margin in a state with 6 1/2 million registered voters. SOLOMON: Well, The Associated Press called the race with Murphy leading by 19,000 votes.

We're joined now by Nancy Solomon, who covers New Jersey politics for member station WNYC.ĬORNISH: So we're saying here that the Democratic governor has won his reelection. Phil Murphy had led his Republican challenger by double digits in the polls, but rather than the decisive win he may have hoped for, he squeaked by his Republican challenger, Jack Ciattarelli, by the tiniest of margins. It was a nail-biter, but the Democratic governor in New Jersey has won his reelection.

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